Perhaps the best emo-folk-rock musician (and particularly lyricist) of his time, Conor Oberst will be releasing his eighth studio album in March. Salutations is a full-band rendering of the songs from last year’s solo Ruminations plus a few additional songs. Apparently, the latter was originally intended as a demo to attract collaborators, but the collaborators were so moved by the solo renditions of the ten songs, that Oberst was inspired to release them in the stripped down format.

Later in 2016, Oberst enlisted New York folk/rock band The Felice Brothers as his backing band, and put seventeen songs in the hands of the legendary Malibu studio Shangri-La. The list of guest contributions on the album – including Jim James, Blake Mills, Maria Taylor, M Ward, Gillian Welch, Gus Seyffert, Pearl Charles, Nathaniel Walcott, and Jonathan Wilson – has me itching to hear this album.

Oberst will hit The Fox in Oakland come May, and I’m sure we’ll have some news on that down the road. Meantime, here is the second release (after December’s “Tachycardia”) off the album, “Uncanny”, the video for which features Oberst played by multiple actors at various stages of life, and the ghost of Sylvia Plath among other delights. Any relation to actual autobiographical – past or future – events has not been verified.

Pre-orders of the album – which you can do here – include immediate downloads of both “Uncanny” and “Tachycardia”.